LOCAL charity Stand Against Violence has been fortunate to secure the generous support of the Somerset County Gazette for their 10th anniversary year.

The charity, set up in 2005 following the murder of local student Lloyd Fouracre aims to prevent violence through education.

Over the coming months the Somerset County Gazette will be bringing you stories about the charity over the years, more detail on what they do and how they do it, and give you information on how you can get involved in supporting the charity's fantastic work.

Adam Fouracre, founder and CEO of SAV said: "We are extremely lucky and grateful to have the Somerset County Gazette's support this year.

"We hope that we can make the most of the opportunity we have been given to spring board the charity in to the public eye and really shout about the positive work we have been doing."

A recent evaluation of their work by a leading violence research organisation has shown that SAV’s school workshops are successfully changing attitudes towards violence.

The Centre for Public Health evaluated the work with young people and found that both immediately after delivery and sustained 6-8 weeks later young people were less likely to resort to violent means of conflict resolution.

The charity has already won multiple awards both locally and nationally including the Queens Award and the Charity Times award.

Going forward the charity wants to expand nationally to reach every young person across the UK.

The charity already delivers to the South West, South Wales, London, parts of the South East, and Staffordshire.

In order to aid this vision the charity are embarking on an ambitious fundraising drive for the 10th anniversary year with a number of large events in planning.

They are also seeking sponsor support and support from donors to raise the funds needed to reach more young people and save more young lives.

Last week saw the first of the year's events with the annual charity ball held at the Somerset County Cricket club.

The event was a huge success with over 220 people attending from all areas of the community.

The evening raised over £6857.69 for the charity which will be match funded by a further £3,500 by Santander taking the total raised to £10357.69.

Adam added: "We are so thrilled with the money raised at the ball. It is a promising start to our anniversary year and to achieving our goal."

Funding will partly be used to deliver free workshops to schools, employ a teacher to ensure consistency and evaluation of SAVs work nationally, and to recruit and train more teachers to deliver around the UK.

If you would like to support SAV either through individual giving or as a corporate sponsor please contact them on info@sav-ed.co.uk.

You can also help with the £10 for 10 years campaign by texting SAVE17 £10 to 70070 as a one off donation.

SAV is extremely grateful for all the support it receives.

To read more about the charity see the Somerset County Gazette this Thursday (April 2).

Keep an eye on the Somerset County Gazette and SAV’s social media sites for more information and details of forthcoming events. facebook.com/saviolence, @saviolence, standagainstviolence.co.uk